Revenants

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Revenants, or mummers, are individuals who have been infected by slaver wasps. They are thus servants of the Other, forced to obey the Other's command voice. There is no known cure.

Note: This page, which identifies individuals who have been or can be forced to contravene their own loyalties and best interests could be considered especially spoiler-prone.

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There are at least three different kinds of revenant, created by at least two different types of wasp.

The most commonly recognized kind, for a long time the only known kind, tends to shamble around a lot and generally act like a mindless zombie. They are created by the standard wasp.

A more subtle type of revenant does not display any signs of infection until given a command. These are the product of the same type of wasp infection as the first, and are in fact the more common outcome.[1] These revenants can apparently lead normal lives if never exposed to the command voice, although there is still no way of removing the infection. Mr. Rovainen was the first of these to be definitely identified. Presumably it is true of this whole class that even those who have received a command are not rendered mindless. Although Mr. Rovainen finds himself compelled to activate the hive engine aboard Castle Wulfenbach, he is free to kill Dr. Vg in passing in order (he claims) to spare his friend from the condition into which he himself has fallen. According to Lord Selnikov, the The Socket Wench of Pragueaudience (who had heard Agatha's acted order to kneel) acted "odd" after the play, but he still protests when Anevka states that, having imprinted on Agatha, they must be destroyed.

SCREE!

A third type of revenant was seen in the town of Passholdt. These were highly mutated, skinny and pale, with bulging red, luminous eyes.

According to Lord Selnikov, they were created by a type of wasp developed by Snarlantz, a local Spark associated with the Order who had been in charge of safeguarding many of the Other's hive engines. Snarlantz worked to try to improve the wasps, and managed to produce one tiny engine that would be able to enslave a Spark, but the ultimate result of his research was the infestation that apparently destroyed both himself and the entire town.

A fourth type of revenant might be formed when a spark is infected with Snarlantz' special wasp.
This has already happened; although there is no doubt that the infection was successful, so far no ill effects have been in evidence since the Other was last subdued.

Although sparks are resistant to infection by ordinary wasps, is is not known what this resistance entails.

Dr. Bren, a minion of Baron Klaus Wulfenbach likely created the wasp eaters to hunt slaver wasps. Recently (perhaps as recent as Mr. Rovainen's conversion) it was discovered that they can detect infection as well. Thus, wasp eaters can detect revenants, in particular the second type, possibly even a large crowd of them at some distance. Normally, however, they sniff close to the suspect's face before making a determination.
They are deployed by the Wulfenbach forces' Bug Squad.

The word “revenant” is actually an English word (taken from French for “returning”) meaning “one who has returned”, either from a long absence, or, in particular, from the dead.
Evidently in the past this latter case generally meant a person appearing either as a ghost or animated corpse; in Girl Genius it seems to be used metonymically for “zombie” in the (pre-1968) voodoo sense of a person whose will has been crushed and replaced with that of the voodoo practitioner.

References

↑Reddit Ask-Me-Anything, 30 May 2013: 'PKSchefflera: I have a question about revenants: You've said before that the wasps are just a vector for the parasites that really exert the control. Are those transmissible any other way? That is, are revenants contagious?''Kaja: Not yet.'